Loretta Lynn is a true icon of country music and American culture, and this week marks the release of the all-star album, Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn — part of the celebration of Loretta’s incredible 50th anniversary in music. The title track and first single, at radio now, features Loretta together with Sheryl Crow and Miranda Lambert — just two of the stars personally chosen by Loretta to sing on an album that also includes Steve Earle, Faith Hill, Alan Jackson, Martina McBride, Allison Moorer, Reba featuring The Time Jumpers, Kid Rock, Paramore, Carrie Underwood, The White Stripes, Lucinda Williams, Gretchen Wilson, and Lee Ann Womack. “I am so happy that these singers wanted to do this record,” says Loretta. “I love ‘em all, and it was so great to hear all the different ways they did my hits.” The album arrived in stores and online earlier this week, just one day before Loretta wowed the crowd with a surprise appearance at The 44th Annual CMA Awards, performing “Coal Miner’s Daughter” with Miranda and Sheryl as part of a salute to Loretta that also featured Academy Award winner, Sissy Spacek. Each artist involved in the new album put their own personal stamp on Loretta’s hits, and to hear Carrie and Miranda talk, it’s easy to see how excited the artists were to honor this great lady of country music. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• Loretta says that staying connected with her fans, staying grounded, and being true to herself are among the keys to her enduring career. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

  Even after all these years, Loretta Lynn says she hasn’t changed — and she doesn’t need to! (:51)
“I don’t think I’ve ever changed, and I’m glad that I haven’t. When I first started gettin’ mail that said how much they love me and what songs that they liked, and they’ll pick out lines in a song that they have lived and that they love, and still yet to this day, if I can’t answer the letter –- if I’m on the road and I’m fixin’ to go on the road –- the letter needs to be answered, I have it answered for me. I write down on the page what I want ’em to say…what I want the girl that helps me with my mail, and she’s been with me for 44 years. She took care of my twins for me. And you never –- you don’t need to change, you know? That’s the worst thing you can do is get the big head, I think.”

  Loretta Lynn says that no artist gets to be successful without the fans. (:06)
“They are important. Hey, if you don’t have the fans, get out of the business, ‘cause you ain’t gonna…you’re not gonna make it.” 

  Loretta Lynn says that her music is who she is. (:41)
“My life is in my songs, yes, they are. A lot of people say, ‘Hey, how do you write a song?’ How do you live? I mean, just sit down, and just start writin’ like you’re talkin’. That’s the way I always did it. Maybe I had to change a few things to not get so dirty. A preacher come to see me one time, and he said, ‘I want you to know that “What Kind of a Girl Do You Think I Am” was one of the greatest songs I’d ever heard.’ And he said, ‘I got it for my little 15-year-old daughter, and it changed her life.’ So that was a great compliment.”

  Carrie Underwood talks about Loretta Lynn. (:11)
“Loretta is such an amazing person, and when I met her, she was just, I don’t know, just funny, and fun, and just had this spark about her that just made you want to hang out with her.”

  Carrie Underwood explains how she got involved with the Loretta Lynn tribute. (:16)
“She wrote me a letter asking me to be a part of, you know, the tribute, and it’s really…it’s great that she was able to say who she wanted, you know, and it’s not run by somebody else, you know, just thinking of people, and this was coming from her.”

  Carrie Underwood had fun picking which Loretta song to do for the tribute album. (:30)
“Going through Loretta songs was so much fun because it was just all about, ‘Oh my gosh, I love that one, oh my gosh, I love that one…oh, I know this one, like, front to back!’ And so I picked ‘You’re Lookin’ at Country,’ and I had a friend — we did that one in Downtown Country when I was in college in my company group — so I knew all the song, and it just seemed, as soon as I saw it, I was like, ‘That’s the one,’ so I am very excited to be a part of that.”

  Miranda Lambert couldn’t believe that Loretta Lynn asked her to sing on “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” (:31)
“It’s ridiculous. I mean, when I got the…I actually got a note from Loretta, a little card, and it said ‘Miranda honey’ is how it started, and she just went on to talk about me and my career and her…you know, she writes just like she talks, and she asked me to do ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter,’ and I just…of all songs, and it’s not just me cutting ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter,’ it’s me singing it with Loretta. That’s the utmost compliment to me as an artist that she would ask me to do it.”

  Miranda Lambert was proud to be involved with the tribute. (:15)
“I mean, it means the world to me that she asked me to do this. She paved the way for women like me, you know? She paved the way to be edgy and be who you are and just sing about what your life is, and she’s a living legend, and I’m just…it’s a huge deal to me. It’s bigger than any…I can’t even say.”

  Miranda Lambert talks about what she admires about Loretta Lynn. (:40)
“What I admire the most about Loretta is that she’s so real. There’s no frills, there’s no hiding anything, there’s no dressing her up and making her something she’s not. She is exactly who she is in her music, in her interviews, on television. There is no secrets. I talked to her on the phone when I was in the studio, and she just seemed exactly like you would think she would be, you know, and she’s just down-to-earth, and, like, that’s what I want my career to be. That’s what I want to be as a woman, not professionally only, but also personally. Just very honest and very real, and for people…for me to have nothing to hide because I love myself. And I think that’s how Loretta is, and, you know, we all should strive to be like Loretta Lynn.”